Apr 24 How I Lost Weight and Kept It Off

It's Monday! Yay! I'm totally being sarcastic. Mondays always seem to drag, but one positive way to look at it is, it's the start of a new week. Today I wanted to talk a little bit about fitness.

Two years ago I gained about 15 pounds and I was really upset with my body image. It was a time in college that I was eating fast food pretty much everyday, twice a day. It was a weird period where I wasn't dancing rigorluesly and I was not in the best place mentally. I was stressed out and was going through a bad experience, it was such a weird time for me. I just didn't care about taking care of my health. One day I got on the scale I was taken aback by how heavy I was. It was the heaviest I had ever been. Seeing that number on the scale forced me to start making some changes to get back to my normal (healthy) self. I want to highlight the top 3 things that helped me get the weight off and keep it off.

1. Eating Smaller Portions: One big thing I did was eating off of smaller plates and decreasing the amount I ate. I realized that the portion sizes in America are unnecessarily huge and it contributes to weight gain. Once I decreased simply the amount I was eating, (only eating till I was comfortably full) I noticed a big difference.

2. Working out 4x a week: Working out is very important to weight loss. I incorporated cross-training which is combining weight training with cardiovascular training. I would incorporate an upper body workout day 2x a week and a lower body 2x a week. All my workouts would then be followed by 30- 45 minutes of cardio.

3. Don't eat late: Eating late at night can lead to significant weight gain. When you eat late you typically go straight to sleep, which means you aren't working off your calories you consumed at all, so your body stores it as fat. Make sure to eat at least 1.5-2 hours before bed.